VOA慢速英語(yǔ): 鹽不僅僅是個(gè)四字母的單詞

[00:05.36]On today’s Words and Their Stories we talk about a common word, a small word, but a word that is completely necessary for human life. [00:18.12]In fact, without this simple, everyday material, all humans would die. [00:28.12]Scientists know it as sodium chloride. We know it as salt. [00:35.09]You may think, salt is just a simple cooking element we shake on our food for a little extra taste. [00:43.45]But salt is much more than that. [00:46.85]Without salt our muscles would not move. [00:50.99]Our nervous systems would not operate. Our hearts would not beat. Salt means life. [01:00.45]But do not think rubbing salt in a wound will help. [01:04.88]Doing that would be painful and not heal the wound. [01:09.79]To rub salt in a wound is an idiom that means to purposefully make a bad situation worse. [01:19.15]Early humans got the salt they needed to stay alive from the animals they killed. [01:26.64]But advances in agriculture led to a diet low in salt. So, humans needed to find others sources. [01:37.54]Those who lived near the ocean or other natural sources for salt were lucky. [01:44.76]Those who did not had to trade for salt. [01:49.55]In fact, people used salt as a method of payment in many parts of the ancient world. [01:56.44]The word “salary” comes from the word “salt.” [02:01.15]Salt also played an important part in population movement and world exploration. [02:08.92]Explorers understood that if they could keep food fresh, they could travel longer distances. [02:16.62]So they used salt to preserve food and explored the world. [02:22.69]Salt meant movement. [02:26.09]Salt also changed the way nations fought. [02:30.31]With preserved food on ships, nations could sail to distant lands … and then attack them. [02:38.35]Salt meant power. [02:41.49]Salt was so important that, according to food historians, it was traded pound-for-pound for gold. [02:50.31]Today, people still use the expressions to be worth one’s salt or worth one’s weight in salt. [02:59.51]The expressions describe a person whois useful, a person of value. [03:05.46]A person might also be called salt of the earth. That description means he or she is dependable and trustworthy. [03:16.49]The phrase comes from the Christian Bible. Jesus called his loyal group of followers -- or disciples -- the salt of the earth. [03:27.53]But one of these disciples was not so loyal. The disciple Judas betrayed Jesus. [03:36.33]In his famous painting “The Last Supper,” Leonardo da Vinci shows Judas spilling a bowl of salt. [03:44.75]Spilled salt is a sign of bad luck and trouble. And trouble is exactly what Judas gave Jesus. [03:54.70]Even today, some people throw salt over one shoulder if they spill it. [04:01.41]They believe throwing salt behind them scares any devil that has been following them -- or at least blinds it for a second while they run away. [04:12.74]But these stories about bad luck should be taken with a grain of salt. [04:18.64]In other words, listen to a story or an explanation with suspicion and distrust. [04:26.04]But you don’t have to take the information you find on VOA Learning English with a grain of salt. We do our research. [04:34.58]And this research led to some interesting facts about salt in other cultures and religions. [04:42.69]In 2200 BC, the Chinese emperor Xia Yu created one of the first known taxes. He taxed salt. [04:54.59]And Egyptians preserved dead bodies with salt, creating mummies. [05:00.75]The Catholic Church uses salt in many of its rituals. Buddhists use salt to prevent evil. [05:09.22]In Japan, the Shinto religion uses salt to clean an area of evil. [05:16.15]In the U.S. Southwest, the Pueblo people worship the Salt Mother. [05:22.33]And in 1933, the Dalai Lama was buried sitting up in a bed of salt. [05:29.73]Today in India, salt is still a symbol of good luck. [05:35.48]What about your culture? Do you have any idioms or expressions about salt? [05:42.60]In the comments section, share a story of salt from your culture. [05:47.30]I’m Jonathan Evans. [05:49.17]And I’m Anna Matteo.

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